Bonds Broken, Bonds Made

Petey had grabbed his slice of pie, leaving the fork and plate behind. He ate it as he stormed towards the woods. He’d always been a mechanical guy. Give him a car, or motorcycle, or boat, even a bicycle, and he could fix what ever was wrong. But this mental stuff; this trying to problem solve hurt his brain.

And that’s why he needed Morgan. She made his mind work better. He couldn’t explain it. Petey finished the pie and wiped his hands on his jeans. He stared into the woods and kept walking. Morgan had this, this presence about her. He just thought better around her.

He remembered, long ago, ’fore she started shy’n away from him, she used to watch him tinker. She’d sit on the fence quiet as a mouse watching him fix something; Grandma B’s lawn mower, or the tractor, or the cheery picker. Well watching him and his Pa. But with her watch’n he never dropped a tool, or made a mistake. With her watch’n his Pa never had a tart remark.

Petey scrambled up the rocky side of Devil’s Flat hardly noticing it. Then he’d gone and ruined it all. It started with the day he asked her out, when he knew it didn’t feel right. Then finished it with the loss of his temper and knocking her out. The wind stung his eyes as he tried to blink back his tears.

Petey looked up and at last he noticed his surroundings. He was on Devil’s Flat and the sun had nearly set. Petey froze in place as a dark form moved towards him. It was a right of passage for boys to sleep at the foot of the Flat on All Hallows Eve. But no one, not even the toughest of boys, dared stay on the top of Devil’s Flat after dusk.

The figure pointed to his feet. Petey found himself looking down at the ground. The last of the sun’s light illuminated dark red and bright yellow splatters in the hard packed dirt. The red was clearly blood. There was a large concentration of it where Petey stood. He jumped back. The dark figure now stood beside him. It lifted its hand and Petey followed it to stare at a scene being re-played before him.

He watched as that Ash guy climbed onto the Flat, obviously oblivious of the curse. Then a very demonic looking creature appeared. Words were exchanged that Petey couldn’t hear. Then they began to fight. His eyes grew wide. No wonder that Ash guy easily beat him up though he was on crutches. The, the, man was good. It hurt Petey to admit that Ash was above his level, that, that he was probably right for Morgan. Then the battle was over and the beast lay dying on top of Ash.

Petey looked at the dark figure beside him. It raised its other arm and Petey turned back to the scene. He saw Morgan appear on top of the flat. Petey jumped back at the fury of her actions. He’d never seen her so angry before and then, she’d made the demon thin burst into flame, before falling back to tend Ash.

Petey didn’t want to see the tenderness in her eyes as cared for Ash. When she collapsed he wanted to rush to her side. But Petey couldn’t. He was frozen there by the dark figure, forced to watch the scene finish playing out. Forced to watch as Haddie and Ghost Wheeler arrived. Forced to watch as Haddie tended Ash, Morgan never losing hold of his hand. And, at last, forced to watch them cart Ash away, a worried Morgan following beside.

The hands dropped and Petey could at last face the shadow. It was nearly pitch black, and he could only see an outline of it. “Why the Hell you show that to me for?” he yelled at it. “Why the hell did I need to see that?” The figure just stared at him, if you could call it that when it had no eyes. “Don’t you think my hearts broken enough without seeing that!” Petey pulled out his wrench and swung it.

The figure laughed at him as it swished through. Petey kept trying, getting angrier and angrier. He tried hitting and kicking and punching but the figure was elusive to his grasp. It just kept laughing at him. He tried an upper cut and the thing shot out an arm and took him by the neck. It was suddenly very solid and Petey couldn’t breath.

“Bondsss are broken and bondsss are made, your life isss naught but an angry tirade.” It hissed at him, right before he passed out, wrench clattering to the dirt.

Story summary

Mike and Morgan have descended form the Protagonize Bus. It is time for them to own their past and forge their future. Will their Faerie blood prove to be a hindrance or a boon? Either way it binds them together as father and daughter.

Author guidance

This is the story of Morgan, Mike, and Gloria whose fates became entwined upon the Protagonize Bus. They have descended from the bus to forage forward on their own along with Ash, who has been given his own parallel story, Last of the Line (see link below).

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